(BL) Taming the Field Guide-Chapter 43: One last final scare

Lunch was finished up quickly after that, the Field Guides taking their leave about the same time as the Espers. Hill went off with one of the food carts, clearly planning to bother Taylor and Kellen, Charlie and Rhys just watched her. Rhys was smirking, shaking his head.

"She’s going to get eaten alive." Rhys said and Kellen furrowed his brows.

"Who? Taylor?" Kellen asked, assuming he was talking about how many people Hill had slept with. Rhys’ grin grew and he laughed.

"No, Hill. She has no idea why Green has been single all this time." Why was she single all this time? Wasn’t it just because she was busy as a Healer?

Kellen felt himself grow angry the more he thought about Rhys’ words. Was he disparaging his friend? How dare he. Taylor was the perfect match for someone, eventually. She just hadn’t met the right person yet!

"Are you implying that Taylor isn’t good enough to have a partner?" Kellen asked, his voice dangerous. Rhys, realising that maybe he’d stepped onto a landmine a little too late, placed a calming hand on Kellen’s shoulder.

"I am not implying that in the slightest. What I am saying is that Green is...particular. She’s friends with you, after all. You had a type, and so does Green." Rhys said. Kellen felt his body stiffen.

While it might be right to say that he had a type, Kellen knew better because Brent had opened his eyes to it. His type had been Rhys because he’d had a crush on him and that was part of the reason why no one else caught his attention. Whether that was because of their compatibility score driving the bus, or because Kellen was stubborn, Kellen had no plans to look into it further.

However, saying that about Taylor? Who the hell did she have a crush on that it impacted her as much as it had impacted Kellen? Why hadn’t he noticed it? Had Rhys noticed it because they were in the same Guild?

This conversation was making Kellen not feel all that great.

"Who does she have a crush on?" Kellen asked, staring at Rhys. Rhys’ eyes widened as he stared at the serious expression of Kellen. A mixture between anger and frustration, Kellen was simmering and Rhys realised he’d lit the fire.

"Oh sugar, she’s not exactly like you. Green doesn’t have a particular person, she just has a type. While I think Hill is a great person, she has her issues as we all do. I don’t think that their relationship would work well, plus, this has been years in the making." Rhys said and that only made Kellen more curious.

"But Hill has been dating other people." Kellen said and Rhys gave a tight smile.

"So have I." He reminded Kellen gently. That came as a little bit of a shock to Kellen. Rhys looked so serious as he said the words too, his yellow eyes tender, but poignant. Right. Rhys hadn’t been single the whole time before he met Kellen, like Kellen had.

"That’s different, though. I’m talking about how Hill has been dating around Taylor while knowing that she had feelings for Taylor. Were you doing that? Dating other people while knowing you had feelings for me?" Kellen asked pointedly and Rhys couldn’t even keep up his serious facade. He cracked a smile.

"No. I wasn’t able to do that." He told Kellen, his yellow gaze sharpening and Kellen gave a brisk nod.

"So, it makes sense that I would be confused." Kellen countered.

"She could be trying to forget her feelings." Charlie spoke up. Both Rhys and Kellen turned to look at the other man, Kellen almost forgetting that he was with them in the room. Charlie looked a little sheepish as both men looked at him. He ducked his head slightly. "Sorry. Should I have remained silent?" He asked and Rhys shook his head.

"No, Charlie. I think that might be a good suggestion." Rhys said slowly while Kellen chewed on the words. Forget Taylor? Forget her feelings for her?

"Couldn’t she just...repress?" Kellen asked and Rhys let out a soft chuckle.

"Kellen, sugar, my darling, Guides and Espers are different, remember? Prone to insanity if we use our powers and don’t monitor it, remember? Surging? Repression isn’t exactly our strong suit." Rhys joked and Kellen swallowed as his unnatural yellow gaze washed over him.

"It’s a Guide’s natural instinct." Charlie said slowly, and Kellen nodded in agreement. What were Guides good at? Taking in other people’s doubts, concerns and negative emotions and quashing them. Turning them into dust.

Kellen let out a deep sigh, shaking his head.

"Still, I have a hard time understanding why she would get other people involved." Kellen muttered and Rhys leaned in, kissing his cheek.

"She’s got her own wounds too, remember. We all do. I’m sure she has worries that neither one of us can understand. Not until she lets us know." Rhys told Kellen warmly and Kellen grumbled, but ultimately agreed.

The conversation had to be put on the backburner because more people came into the room and Rhys had to say his goodbyes and go finish his day. He looked absolutely beside himself that he had to leave Kellen behind in the Medical Bay. Kellen blew him kisses and reminded him that he would message him.

He needed more assurance than that, demanding kisses and hugs, even accepting a few from Charlie. Charlie was grinning from ear to ear just because he was included in Rhys’ theatrics but eventually he left. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

Then, it was Charlie, Kellen, and the rotating cast that kept ’bothering’ them.

~

At around 9 pm that night, Kellen woke up in a cold sweat. His heart was pounding in his chest, his breathing laboured, and his body was trembling all over. He was freezing, even with the human heater pressed against him that was Rhys.

Kellen’s vision fluctuated, black spots floating across his one good eye and he began tapping Rhys, trying to rouse him from his slumber.

Rhys stirred slowly, before suddenly jolting awake.

"Kellen? What’s wrong?" Rhys asked and Kellen just shook his head, gasping. Rhys was on it. He slammed a button that was on the right-hand side of the bed and while Kellen and Rhys heard nothing, it was clear that someone had.

Within minutes, a group of Healers were in the room, chasing Rhys out of the bed so that they could focus on care for Kellen. They quickly found out what was wrong thanks to the constant tests that they had been doing. Rhys was grim as the Healer in charge barked out orders, demanding things that Kellen could only hear vaguely. His hearing was going as well, but as soon as something was hooked up to the iv and pumped into his system, the symptoms began to fade.

Did Kellen know what they had done? No, but when he took his first, unlaboured breath, it felt like heaven. Kellen lay against the bed, his chest rising and falling, his hearing restored as his body continued to shiver.

"Get him some blankets, right now." The Healer ordered.

"Kellen? Can you hear me, sugar?" Rhys asked and Kellen nodded, shivering. "Thank goodness. What happened?" Rhys demanded and the Healer let out a heavy sigh.

"You’re not going to like the words I’m about to say, sir." They started. "But unfortunately, or rather, fortunately, we anticipated that Guide Woods could have a drop of some kind. We’ve been keeping such a tight eye on him because we weren’t sure when it would happen. That was the drop. It’s a good thing that Guide Woods woke up, or we could have all been alerted by the alarms going off in probably five minutes." The Healer told them. "I’ve also informed Esper Green and Esper Martinez, but they should have also gotten an alert as soon as the button was pressed." Rhys’ deep sigh filled the air before Kellen felt him take his hand and squeeze.

Kellen opened his eye just as they were coming in with more blankets to wrap around him and Kellen gave them a grateful smile.

"Be honest, do you think that means everything is going to be okay from this point on?" Kellen asked and the Healer seemed a little torn. They hesitated answering, before they gave a begrudging answer.

"I really want it to be the case. If this is all we have to worry about...god, it would be nice. This kind of strange I can work with. I know what to do in the face of this kind of beast. Poisons? I have no clue, but you crashing because of textbook reasons? I can manage that." They admitted and Kellen swallowed.

Rhys gave Kellen’s hand a squeeze, and then the door hit the wall as a bright green eyed Taylor came in. She was wearing a set of pajamas covered in a small cartoon bird, her hair a mess around her shoulders.

"He’s okay?" She demanded and the Healer hardened their expression before turning to Taylor and giving her a debrief. Taylor ran a hand over her face, sighing, before she turned to Kellen and gave him a disbelieving headshake. "Up until the last fucking moment, right? You couldn’t be easy, could you?" She was blaming him, but Kellen just smiled.

"Gwen’s probably going to be worse." He countered and Taylor gave a watery smile before she laughed.

"Fuck. You’re probably right." She agreed, but she wasn’t fully soothed until she took a chance to look him over with her powers, read his monitor for a few minutes, and then she was soothed enough to breathe calmly.

By the time she was soothed, Kellen was slowly warming up and his body only shivered every once in a while.

"You’re staying until morning." She told him firmly and Kellen agreed. He could feel how much Rhys and Taylor were daring him to argue with her, but Kellen wasn’t a fool. He wanted to be all better as well.

They only backed down when they got an audible confirmation from him, and even then, it took another 15 minutes to send Taylor back to bed.

Rhys was careful with Kellen when he climbed back into the hospital bed. Treating him like a delicate little flower.

Kellen wasn’t going to live down that alert for a while.